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    Default Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    I'm still pretty new to the ttrpg scene as I only really got into it in my latter years of college. As of now I have played some other systems I really like, such as Chronicles of Darkness, Classic World of Darkness, and Call of Cthulu. That being said, most of my experience has been with 5e D&D. While I do enjoy the system due to it's simplicity and focus on combat I sometimes find it a bit TOO simple and I'm looking for other games to try. If anybody has any recommendations for other games that are similar, or that work for specific niches (such as combat, role-playing, or mystery solving) I'd be interested in hearing about them. This includes older versions of D&D as aside from 4e (which I remember being very boring) I haven't played anything prior to 5e.

    Thanks a bunch

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Maybe Pathfinder? It's a slightly more polished version of 3.5e D&D, while 5e is sort of a simplified version of 3.5e D&D.

    What kind of general experience are you looking for? D&D-style gameplay? A different style/genre/power level/
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    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    GURPS: grab the base book and then grab whatever supplement you want for literally any setting you can think of.
    caveat though; GURPS does gritty a lot better than it does high power

    MYTHRAS: basically was going to be runequest 6th edition, but then made into mythras with a couple changes.

    Both of these have free to Download starter rules that cover a big chunk of the game and each are different mechanics

    3d6 roll under for gurps and percentile roll under for mythras.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Maybe Pathfinder? It's a slightly more polished version of 3.5e D&D, while 5e is sort of a simplified version of 3.5e D&D.
    Pathfinder is also literally free.

    No really. The rules are, for both of its current editions, 100% free.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
    A game setting does need to be designed to be fun and functional to game in.

    But there's more to good worldbuilding than piling the "parts to game in" on a big pile.

    Farmland isn't there to be adventured in, primarily, but one assumes it's still there and part of the landscape -- just because adventurers don't go there often doesn't mean it doesn't or shouldn't or needn't exist.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    GURPS is worth a look, but be aware it does need some pruning to get to the parts suitable for your game - it is a generic system & the full game is pretty detailed (the full skill list is very long & contains things such as typing, gardening & bicycling which are not going to be used in most games I suspect). It works perfectly well once you've done the initial work though. If you want to play a horror campaign in any system I recommend the Gurps horror supplement just for the setting & RP advice.

    For a simpler & more high adventure generic system you could look at Savage Worlds. It's designed to be fast to play even with a load of extras (I've never really tested that but I think it should work). Pretty similar to 5E in simplicity but generall faster to run in my experience, and caters to multiple game types (SciFi, fantasy, horror etc) which 5E doesn't really.

    Trail of Cthulhu is an investigation-focused Cthulhu game - it is designed to prevent your investigation getting stopped by one poor dice roll when searching the cultists house for that one vital clue. Worth a look if you like CoC

    Looking at some rather different games, you could look at one the Powered by the Apocalypse games. I own several but haven't had a chance to play or run one yet, so my recommendation has to be reserved, but I like the concept (I wouldn't have bought the others if I didn't!). Also supposed to be low/no prep (you may need to be a better on-the-fly GM than me for that though..)
    These are designed to emulate TV shows & movies, and require you to lean into the tropes of the genre you are playing in. You'd want to pick up the one/ones that fit the game you want to play. The ones I have are:
    Apolocalypse World - post-apocalypic (Mad Max)
    Dungeon World - D&D
    Monster of the Week - Supernatural/Buffy/X-files

    Blades in the Dark - slightly more involved - PbtA is an element rather than the full design here. May be a bit easier to do as a newbie to the system (it is the one I plan to try first). You are a band of thieves/low-lives in a dark fantasy oppressive setting, tyring to carve out a niche in the city for your crew

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by PolygonPrism View Post
    While I do enjoy the system due to it's simplicity and focus on combat I sometimes find it a bit TOO simple
    If you like a fantasy game with a focus on combat and want more complexity and tactics than 5E, then the obvious choice is Pathfinder.

    Not only are the rulebooks free, as mentioned above; there are tons of open online games that you can join just to try it out. If they're low-level games, expect them to allow pregenerated characters and also have people willing to help and/or advice you.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by caden_varn View Post
    For a simpler & more high adventure generic system you could look at Savage Worlds. It's designed to be fast to play even with a load of extras (I've never really tested that but I think it should work). Pretty similar to 5E in simplicity but generall faster to run in my experience, and caters to multiple game types (SciFi, fantasy, horror etc) which 5E doesn't really
    It puts its complexity in different places, in my experience. 5e has a simple structure, with your build choices adding new options; Savage Worlds has a much more detailed set of base rules, but characters are way simpler. Once you internalize the rules for things like automatic gunfire and vehicle movement, it runs quickly indeed, but getting to that point takes some work.

    It's also by far the deadliest system I've ever run a campaign in. Even without exploding dice, running out of hero points is a death sentence-- you can take three injuries, period, and the only way to mitigate damage once you get hit is to spend a "benny." When you add the potential for any roll to wind up extremely high...I've seen the occasional attack one-shot a target even after they spend all their hero points.

    Don't get me wrong, it's fun as hell, and makes for some great gamer stories, but... put it like this, in just a few months of play I've killed 3 PCs. That's about on par with what my 5e group has seen over the last five YEARS.

    It's a bit of a different vibe.
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    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
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    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    I'm going to make a couple of more extreme suggestions, all related.

    First, Nobilis, which sadly is currently out of print (3e disappeared due to publisher issues, and 2e is a weird size that DTRPG doesn't offer). In it you play demigods representing aspects of reality such as Love, Resilience, or Nissin Instant Noodles and have to help defend creation from the Excrusians who wish to destroy it, attend parties, and basically explore the meaning of your actions. PCs begin at the level of endgame D&D characters, but when both you and your enemies have the power to destroy the world the challenge lies on such a thing not happening. It's entirely diceless, the gameplay revolves around resource management. The 2e example of play is legendary.

    Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine is a spin-off from Nobilis, and by default is 'feel good slice of life gaming' with options for more dramatic storytelling. It's focused on Arcs and Quests, where the former is what kind of story your character is on and the latter is whatever it is they're trying to do (Learn the Violin, Research the Outside, Go On A Date With Chuubo...). The setting is, essentially, Nobilis the High School AU, but is focused on both more mortal characters and even more miraculous characters (two of the default cast are essentially people who would be the Nobilis's bosses). Yes it's diceless, yes the rulebook is 500 pages without dedicated combat mechanics, that's what makes it interesting compared to most games

    Finally, Glitch is a perspective flip on Nobilis, using a similar system to tell the stories of Excrusian nobility who have opted out of the whole 'destroying creation' deal. Again you have the power of a god, but expressed very differently, and whereas the Nobilis use their power to make their lives easier yours robs you of the ability to enjoy the world and seems to work to make you a disappointment. So you spend your time solving mysteries and dealing with the Glitch, the inherent wrongness of the world, until your story is done. It includes an example of play just as good and slightly more realistic than the one in Nobilis 2e.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    It puts its complexity in different places, in my experience. 5e has a simple structure, with your build choices adding new options; Savage Worlds has a much more detailed set of base rules, but characters are way simpler. Once you internalize the rules for things like automatic gunfire and vehicle movement, it runs quickly indeed, but getting to that point takes some work.

    It's also by far the deadliest system I've ever run a campaign in. Even without exploding dice, running out of hero points is a death sentence-- you can take three injuries, period, and the only way to mitigate damage once you get hit is to spend a "benny." When you add the potential for any roll to wind up extremely high...I've seen the occasional attack one-shot a target even after they spend all their hero points.

    Don't get me wrong, it's fun as hell, and makes for some great gamer stories, but... put it like this, in just a few months of play I've killed 3 PCs. That's about on par with what my 5e group has seen over the last five YEARS.

    It's a bit of a different vibe.
    Yes, it's certainly a different feeling - one thing that does take getting used to ads GM is giving out bennies often enough so the group are happy to spend them on stuff other than soaking. I'm still not really there, although I don;t play a whole lot (I'm a bit of a butterfly for running different games/systems)
    I've not had that much lethality in my games though - are you playing Deadlands? I'd expect more in a horror campaign. Unless I've been reading thre rules wrong, damage rolls don;t explode by default (you can use an option to do that if you want although they warn it increases lethality). May be different depending on the edition though?
    Last edited by caden_varn; 2022-03-01 at 09:37 AM.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Pendragon does the Arthuruan legend (ok, one of them) quite well. It includes a virtues/vices system, family, an off-season, and descendants (your replacement characters can come from your family, with bonuses & inheriting good equipment).

    Paranoia does humor & light hearted PvP. Although, there was more cooperation & teamwork the last two times I ran it than in the last 15 years of D&D. That was weird.

    I suggest looking at at least two or three supers systems. Try to spread them out a bit, they all perform slightly differently, with different strengths & weaknesses. The biggies are mostly Mutants & Masterminds and Champions.

    The recent Aliens rpg has gotten good chatter, particularly for its stress mechanic. I'm personally fond of classic Traveller as a light weight sci-fi game (theres a wee bit of low end algeba if you really want to calc precise travel times & distances).

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    My usual drums to beat:

    Hackmaster is a D&D-like game that is VERY crunchy. A well-integrated skill system, a couple different magic types, and some very fun combat mechanics... when I play other games, I miss the "count up" of second by second combat. The link above is to the free Basic version, so you have nothing to lose. It also has world material written by someone very handsome and intelligent. As a note, though, it's not a game that easily adapts to a ton of different game types... it's designed to be a D&D-like, not a toolbox.

    A good toolbox, IMO, is Savage Worlds. It is skill-based, with "tiers" instead of levels... a measure of experience which just shows how high above the starting level you are. I find it really easy to hack into pretty much anything you want to... I've done conversions of Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, and Shadowrun, all on the same basic rules chassis, and am working on three games featuring mutant animals, and one about being a football club. It's flexible, and designed to be played pretty easily... usually, you roll your skill (and a d6, which is counted separately) v. a 4. Roll 4+, you succeed. Roll 8+, and you really succeed.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by caden_varn View Post
    I've not had that much lethality in my games though - are you playing Deadlands? I'd expect more in a horror campaign. Unless I've been reading thre rules wrong, damage rolls don;t explode by default (you can use an option to do that if you want although they warn it increases lethality). May be different depending on the edition though?
    I am running Deadlands, yeah, but... wait, damage rolls don't explode? Wait, crap. <pulls out my book>

    ...



    ...

    Dang. That would have been an easy answer to why people have gotten splattered so easily.
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    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
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    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Darn it, now I'm trying to remember how the SW damage rules work. As I remember you need somebody to be Shaken before they can take Wounds, which means the first time a character is hit in a round you'll need a Raise to inflict a Wound. I also imagine Armour and reducing hit chance being important.

    I believe an average mook has either d6 or d8 in their attack skill, which means that having a decent Fighting (in melee) or getting behind cover (at range) means less than half of the extras should hit. Get some decent armour (say two points on the chest, which IIRC protects from uncalled shots) and it might take a few rounds for PCs to get hurt. d6 Vigor+2 points of armour means a standard pistol will need to Ace on at least one die to change a chance of doing damage.

    It's more lethal than M&M or D&D, but not to GURPS or Unknown Armies levels.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
    Darn it, now I'm trying to remember how the SW damage rules work. As I remember you need somebody to be Shaken before they can take Wounds, which means the first time a character is hit in a round you'll need a Raise to inflict a Wound. I also imagine Armour and reducing hit chance being important.
    So, you have a Toughness, which is initially based on Vigor Die/2 +2... d4 vigor die, you get a 4 toughness (4/2 +2), d12 vigor die, you get an 8 (12/2 + 2). You can add armor to that, but I'm going to ignore that for now.

    *Damage less than your toughness you pretty much shrug off.

    *Damage equal to your toughness, but less than your Toughness + 4 will
    leaven you Shaken if you are not already Shaken, or Wounded and Shaken if you are already Shaken.

    *Damage of Toughness +4 to Toughness +7 will leave you Shaken and Wounded, or Shaken and with 2 Wounds, if you're already Shaken.

    *Damage of Toughness +8 to Toughness +11 will leave you Shaken and with 2 Wounds, or Shaken with 3 Wounds if you're Shaken.

    It goes up from there. Toughness plus less than 4 is shaken. Toughness + (whole number multiple of 4) = equals shaken and a number of wounds, depending on whether or not you're shaken when you get hit.

    Spend your bennies on soaking, and make your GM laugh so he gives you more.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    A thought occurs to me: two of my casualties came from enemy wild cards fanning the hammer*-- when you get hit a couple times in one go, your bennies evaporate in a big hurry. Was I misreading the rules for automatic fire or soak and making things way more lethal?
    • The attacker fires four shots with a d10 Shooting die.
    • They roll (1d10-4) four times, and (1d6-4) once.
    • They get a 5, 3, 4, and 9, hitting three times; one attack hits with a raise.
    • They make three damage rolls: 2d6, 2d6, and 3d6.
    • They get a 9, 10, and 12.
    • The player's Toughness is 5, so each damage roll is a success with a raise.
    • To soak that damage, they need to spend one benny per attack. If they suffer wound penalties from attack 1, they apply to soak rolls 2 and 3.




    *In Deadlands terms, you can make up to six attacks in the same action, with a -4 penalty on each.
    Last edited by Grod_The_Giant; 2022-03-02 at 02:57 PM.
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    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

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    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    A thought occurs to me: two of my casualties came from enemy wild cards fanning the hammer*-- when you get hit a couple times in one go, your bennies evaporate in a big hurry. Was I misreading the rules for automatic fire or soak and making things way more lethal?
    • The attacker fires four shots with a d10 Shooting die.
    • They roll (1d10-4) four times, and (1d6-4) once.
    • They get a 5, 3, 4, and 9, hitting three times; one attack hits with a raise.
    • They make three damage rolls: 2d6, 2d6, and 3d6.
    • They get a 9, 10, and 12.
    • The player's Toughness is 5, so each damage roll is a success with a raise.
    • To soak that damage, they need to spend one benny per attack. If they suffer wound penalties from attack 1, they apply to soak rolls 2 and 3.
    I think you are, but they don't make it easy to read. I'm assuming you're using SWADE.

    Quote Originally Posted by SWADE
    Rate of Fire: Rate of Fire is how many shots (Shooting dice) a ranged weapon can
    fire in one action. A pistol with a RoF of 1, for example, can fire one shot per action. A machine gun with a Rate of Fire of 3 can fire three shots per action (10 actual bullets, see below).
    For weapons with a Rate of Fire of 2 or higher, declare how many shots you’re putting into each possible target. Then roll that number of Shooting dice and assign them in whatever order you like to the targets you declared.
    Now, to me, though you're making several rolls for attack and damage, it's all one "attack"... it is an option under Ranged Attack, and you're going to apply all of these at the same time. So, if that sidewinder is fannin' the hammer at you, you're likely to lose some blood... but you don't have to soak each shot separately, as they're all part of the same attack.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    I think you are, but they don't make it easy to read. I'm assuming you're using SWADE.
    I'm afraid not-- we're using Savage Worlds Deluxe (with the errata)
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    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
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    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    A thought occurs to me: two of my casualties came from enemy wild cards fanning the hammer*-- when you get hit a couple times in one go, your bennies evaporate in a big hurry. Was I misreading the rules for automatic fire or soak and making things way more lethal?
    • The attacker fires four shots with a d10 Shooting die.
    • They roll (1d10-4) four times, and (1d6-4) once.
    • They get a 5, 3, 4, and 9, hitting three times; one attack hits with a raise.
    • They make three damage rolls: 2d6, 2d6, and 3d6.
    • They get a 9, 10, and 12.
    • The player's Toughness is 5, so each damage roll is a success with a raise.
    • To soak that damage, they need to spend one benny per attack. If they suffer wound penalties from attack 1, they apply to soak rolls 2 and 3.




    *In Deadlands terms, you can make up to six attacks in the same action, with a -4 penalty on each.
    That's correct by my reading, but why isn't the PC in cover? Light cover removes one of the hits, medium cover (which can be got by going prone) negates two of the hits and removes the raise from the second. Both of those should be fairly reasonable to get and would have reduced Wounds taken from five to one.

    And again armour helps. I'm not sure what Deadlands has in terms of armour, but even a +1 from a homemade leather breastplate would have negated a wound (and while there's no Crafts skill Repair is probably close enough).

    You'd still get these situations occasionally, but not standing out in the open in street clothes is tactically sound and will help survivability.

    ETA: specifics referenced from SWD.
    Last edited by Anonymouswizard; 2022-03-02 at 04:08 PM.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    I'm afraid not-- we're using Savage Worlds Deluxe (with the errata)
    DEMON HERETIC! THE FIRES FROM THE PINNACLE SHALL CLEANSE YOU!1

    Looking at Deluxe, however, my answer doesn't change; while it's multiple shots, it's still a single attack.


    1 (I almost red-texted that out of reflex, which would make that joke WAY different)
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
    You'd still get these situations occasionally, but not standing out in the open in street clothes is tactically sound and will help survivability.
    That would definitely have helped, yes. The players were not blameless in their demises.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    Looking at Deluxe, however, my answer doesn't change; while it's multiple shots, it's still a single attack.
    That feels like kind of a stretch to me, but it does make for a much more survivable interpretation. I'll talk it over with my players and see which version we prefer.

    1 (I almost red-texted that out of reflex, which would make that joke WAY different)
    Heh
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Well, I always feel the need to advocate for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (Second Edition). Of the systems you mentioned, it's mechanically somewhat similar to Call of Cthulhu, with percentile skills and an every-combat-can-be-your-last kind of difficulty. But that's a fairly surface-level comparison.

    If you're not familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, the game is primarily set in a fantasy pastiche of the Holy Roman Empire circa 1500 if, in addition to disease, byzantine politics, and endemic warfare, the HRE was also full of mutants, orcs, daemon cults, and rat-men.

    The big selling point, in my opinion, is the career system. Your character will roll up a random career (well, semi-random; roll twice and pick one, and certain races have more extensive career lists to roll off of) which defines your skills, talents, and ability score upgrade paths; more than half of the careers are mundane occupations with little combat ability. To give you an idea, the starting party of my current WFRP campaign consisted of a Thief, a Miner, a Servant, a Dilettante, and a Knight-Errant.

    If you feel like 5e D&D pushes players too much towards self-insert action hero PCs, this is a refreshing change, a system that tells you to roll up random medieval schmucks with a few decent abilities (which might not pertain to combat at all!) and send them off to die fighting monstrous horrors. But if you do survive, you still get the chance to steer your character's progression, with a huge variety of careers to change into over the course of a campaign.
    Last edited by Catullus64; 2022-03-03 at 08:30 AM.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Thank you all for the suggestions, they all sound really interesting! I especially will be keeping my eye on games like Pathfinder, GURPS, Monster of the Week, Dungeon World, Trail of Cthulu, Pendragon, Mutants and Masterminds, Champions, Hackmaster, and Savage Worlds. I have a love of systems that let you participate in over-the-top rule of cool combat, as well as games that let you experiment with character builds or that are designed for specific genres. So all of these sound like they'd be up my alley.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    There's also the AGE games (Dragon Age, Fantasy AGE, Blue Rose, Modern AGE, and the expanse).

    Setup-wise Dragon AGE, Fantasy AGE, and Blue Rose are D&D with twists. You roll or but stats, pick your race/origin, you pick your class from Warrior/Rogue/Mage, and you make a few choices regarding Talents and Focuses (think Feats and Skills). There's issues with HP scaling much faster than damage, but nothing that can't be ironed out.

    Modern AGE and the Expanse instead move towards a levelled classless system, with you picking a Talent at every level instead of roughly alternating between Talents and class features. Race and class are replaced with Background and Profession, with the latter just being a package of Focuses, Talents, Wealth, HP, and social connections.

    What really sets them apart is the critical hit system. Barring damage every roll uses 3d6, two of one colour and one of a different colour (the 'stunt die'). If you roll doubles you look at what your stunt die rolled, which determines how many points you have to spend on stunts like grappling, extra damage, armour penetration, or moving yourself or enemies around. These stunts also apply to social or exploration situations, but until Modern AGE they were kind of lacking. But they'll come up a lot, although you won't always be getting a lot of points to spend.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    If you want to leverage your experience with 5e, I recommend Amazing Adventures 5e. It's a much more any-genre or modern game, probably the closest to D20 Modern I've seen, but completely compatible with 5e. You can play anything from Indiana Jones to Sherlock Holmes to the Rocketeer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even low-level superheroes if you wish. And it has a usable full psionic class, the Mentalist.

    And there are suggestions on making AA5e classes work in D&D games, and vice-versa.

    Highly recommended!

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Pathfinder: For mostly the same reasons everyone else has said though if you're coming straight from 5e then I would recommend Pathfinder 2e in particular. I've been finding it a happy medium between 5e's streamlining and Pathfinder 1e's crunch. It also feels a lot more manageable than PF1e but that may just be me. Multiclassing is smoother at least and it means once you have system mastery you don't have character descriptions with four different classes, each with their own specific archetype. Some people like that; I just found descriptions like Magus (Eldritch Scion) 5/Monk (Scaled Fist 2)/Insert-other-class-here ugly and convoluted.

    Traveller (Mongoose Traveller 2e, specifically): Mainly suggesting this edition of the game because Seth Skorkowsky did a big video series explaining how to play it. Cool setting, interesting character creation system. It can feel a bit dense early on but the more complex parts of the game are actually the ones that don't take up much "table time". Character Creation's gonna be your session zero and stuff like cargo or passengers can often be done between sessions (taking off for another planet feels like it'd be a good session end point, then the GM and whichever character is actually organising the cargo/passengers can work out the details between sessions over discord or the like). There are parts where you're going to feel the game's age (remember; Traveller as a whole as been around since the 70s, making it almost as old as D&D), but it's not so severe that you can't make adjustments, like adding equivalents to the internet and smartphones to planets that would plausibly have them.

    Cyberpunk Red: Cyberpunk 2020 can work as well, but Red's a smoother system and you don't have to check as many modifiers every time you try and shoot someone. I think the only snag with running Red is more the state of the setting (Night City's the aftermath of a warzone at this point in the timeline - inter-city supply lines are a mess and reliant on Nomad clans like the Aldecaldos, rather than regular shops most people are reliant on fixer-arranged Night Markets, there's still a radioactive crater where Corpo Plaza used to be, etc), and even then it's more an issue if people are coming into Red after playing Cyberpunk 2077, which is after Night City had recovered, or from other cyberpunk media like Blade Runner or Shadowrun which doesn't have that immediate post-war recovery feel.
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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Well, it looks like I've been doing damage wrong in SW then - I could have sworn damage rolls didn't explode in the standard game (at least in SWADE - they may have changed it from explorer. but I can;t find that - why can't I put my books away properly??).

    I should also push for Torg as the main rulebook & a bunch of other stuff is available in the current bundle of holding (https://bundleofholding.com/presents/TorgEssentials) - I've picked it up, and the Day one books loks like quickstart adventures designed to introduce the rules, but I haven't read too much yet.
    It's set in the modern world when it is invaded by 7 other realities trying to steal our juicy reality energy. You play as someone from core earth or one of the invadiing realities fighting back agaisnt the raiders. You have:
    • Mediaeval fantasy (D&D style)
    • Pulp action Land that time forgot (primitives & dinosaurs)
    • Pulp action silver age superheroes in the 1940s (Indiana Jones et al)
    • Victorian Horror
    • Technodemon post-apocalyse
    • Cyberpunk Theocracy
    • Corporate Espionage with Ninjas!


    so you end up with a ... diverse party roaming from reality to reality. I enjoy it, just wish I got to play more (I normally end up running it).
    My last group was a primitive shaman/archer with a pet velicoraptor, a cybered up warlock, a Russian ex-motorcycle ganger psychic/psychopath & an core earth special forces/spy type
    Last edited by caden_varn; 2022-03-09 at 09:34 AM.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by PolygonPrism View Post
    I'm still pretty new to the ttrpg scene as I only really got into it in my latter years of college. As of now I have played some other systems I really like, such as Chronicles of Darkness, Classic World of Darkness, and Call of Cthulu. That being said, most of my experience has been with 5e D&D. While I do enjoy the system due to it's simplicity and focus on combat I sometimes find it a bit TOO simple and I'm looking for other games to try. If anybody has any recommendations for other games that are similar, or that work for specific niches (such as combat, role-playing, or mystery solving) I'd be interested in hearing about them. This includes older versions of D&D as aside from 4e (which I remember being very boring) I haven't played anything prior to 5e.

    Thanks a bunch
    For a D&D-style of game, check out Five Torches Deep. Consider it a cross between 5e and OSR games.
    If you want a true OSR game on the cheap, check out Basic Fantasy. It's basically free to download.

    You may also want to check out Mythras by the Design Mechanism. It is a classless Skill-Based percentile system based on Chaosium's BRP engine that is just about as flexible as you can get. An older, less polished version of this system would be LEGEND from Mongoose Publishing which is available for less than $10 in most places.

    I also recommend Conan 2D20 by Modiphius Games as a unique, if crunchy, rpg using a system where you roll 2D20 (or more d20s) in order to roll UNDER a target number and generate one or more successes on each die.

    Free League Games has their Forbidden Lands rpg. Their Year Zero engine is fast and intuitive to use.

    Those are just a few examples of what's out there for non-D&D rpgs.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Blades in the dark as been recommanded a few times, I'll add my voice to it. It's very different from 5e, and it's quite the excellent narrative engine. I've had so many good sessions since i've started playing this game it's crazy.
    I will also recommend Infinity RPG from modiphius. Derived from the tabletop wargame created by the Spanish company Corvus Belli, it's an excellent and realistic futuristic setting, supported by the best iteration of the 2d20 system. A note on the system: it's good. The way it handle the different pillars (which pretty much are social, combat and hacking) is excellent, and they mesh up together well. You can perfectly assist your team in combat from your coach a continent two country away, and social expert can use their skills to distract, influence or even put enemy out of the fight. I usually go for neo noir cop story, but the system can handle most style of game.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronic View Post
    Blades in the dark as been recommanded a few times, I'll add my voice to it. It's very different from 5e, and it's quite the excellent narrative engine. I've had so many good sessions since i've started playing this game it's crazy.
    I will also recommend Infinity RPG from modiphius. Derived from the tabletop wargame created by the Spanish company Corvus Belli, it's an excellent and realistic futuristic setting, supported by the best iteration of the 2d20 system. A note on the system: it's good. The way it handle the different pillars (which pretty much are social, combat and hacking) is excellent, and they mesh up together well. You can perfectly assist your team in combat from your coach a continent two country away, and social expert can use their skills to distract, influence or even put enemy out of the fight. I usually go for neo noir cop story, but the system can handle most style of game.
    The Infinity RPG caught my eye because of the miniatures game, but I have not picked it up. I have a question: how do the PCs interact with the different factions? Is everyone from the same faction, or are people able to pick from different ones?
    I found that RPGs based on war games (e.g. Mechwarrior, Warhammer, Mutant Chronicles) are tricky because the party usually gets limited to one faction, so the players only get to experience part of the universe.

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    Default Re: Looking to branch out of D&D 5e, Any Advice?

    Quote Originally Posted by caden_varn View Post
    My last group was a primitive shaman/archer with a pet velicoraptor, a cybered up warlock, a Russian ex-motorcycle ganger psychic/psychopath & an core earth special forces/spy type
    Darn, I want to give this game a look now, but I've used up my RPG budget for the month.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelphas View Post
    So here I am, trapped in my laboratory, trying to create a Mechabeast that's powerful enough to take down the howling horde outside my door, but also won't join them once it realizes what I've done...twentieth time's the charm, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    How about a Jovian Uplift stuck in a Case morph? it makes so little sense.

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